Proposed Topic (Most preferred): :
Clinical Safety and Quality Service I (Projects aiming to improve efficiency and effectiveness of care delivery to meet international standards)
Proposed Topic (Second preferred): :
Clinical Safety and Quality Service II (Projects aiming to enhance clinical safety and outcomes, clinical governance / risk management)
Authors (including presenting author) :
Yeung SSY(1), Tsoi HHY(1), Zheng MSM(1), Tong TKS(1), Chung CHK(1), Wong HSY(1), Mak RWM(1), Chan ACY(1), Chui WCM(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Department of Pharmacy, Queen Mary Hospital
Introduction :
Managing emergency kit (E-kit) for resuscitation use in clinical areas is a part of medication management provided by Pharmacy. To safeguard medication safety, Pharmacy staff have to ensure the drugs in E-kits are properly replenished and within the drug’s expiry at all times. Existing workflow of E-kit management relies heavily on manual checking and handwritten records, which are not user-friendly for information retrieval and prone to human errors. Moreover, batch information of drugs kept in E-kits was not available in existing E-kit records, which imposed difficulties in tracing problematic drugs in E-kits for any drug quality issues.
Objectives :
- To improve efficiency of E-kit management by utilizing an electronic system
- To enhance medication safety by strengthening drug batch tracing in E-kits
Methodology :
An Electronic E-kit Management System (the System) was developed to streamline the E-kit management workflow in Queen Mary Hospital Pharmacy. Firstly, for E-kit preparation, the System will automatically assign E-kit expiry based on individual drug expiry inside the kit. Pharmacy staff will be alerted if any expired drug is mistakenly put into the kit. A E-kit Cover Sheet (with printed E-kit expiry and identification barcode) and a Drug Batch and Expiry Information Sheet will also be generated by the System to replace handwritten records when finishing E-kit preparation. Furthermore, upon receiving E-kit exchange request from clinical areas, E-kit status and location will be updated instantly in the System by scanning identification barcode on the E-kit. Lastly, E-kit expiry and drug batch information reports can be readily generated by the System to facilitate expiry management and drug batch tracing.
Result & Outcome :
The new System has been implemented in Pharmacy since January 2023. Data on E-kit exchange turnaround time in Pharmacy before and after system implementation was collected during June 2022 to December 2023. A significant reduction in overall average turnaround time from 269 minutes to 181 minutes was observed after implementation (p<0.05). For urgent exchange request, average turnaround time was also significantly reduced from 25 minutes to 7 minutes (p<0.05).
The Electronic E-kit Management System provides a smarter way in managing E-kits in Pharmacy, with significantly improved efficiency in E-kit preparation and exchange, and enhanced function in drug batch tracing for medication safety.
